AMRUT DPR, a plagiarized version of Gujarat professor’s article

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Satish I Chaturvedi, an assistant professor based in Gujarat, has come out against Ram Biologicals and said that it was not a fair and proper gesture on the part of the firm to have copied one of his published articles and reproduce it in their detailed project report (DPR) prepared for a project under AMRUT scheme in Kozhikode.

“I have not given my consent to Ram Biologicals to reproduce my article in their DPR. I have read the DPR and I feel it was unfair on their part to do so,” Chaturvedi , assistant professor, department of chemical engineering, SVM Institute of Technology, Bharuch, Gujarat, told TOI over phone. He said that he didn’t even know Reena Anilkumar, chief executive officer of Ram Biologicals, when asked whether he was acquainted with her in any way to give permission to reproduce the work.
The DPR submitted by the firm for Rs 14-crore worth project at Kozhikode medical college under AMRUT has a chapter called selection of technology which deals with electro-coagulation. The chapter shows striking semblance to a research article published by Chaturvedi in International Journal of Modern Engineering Research in 2013.
The lines and chapter were lifted from the article even without acknowledgement or attribution and Ram Biologicals claims in the declaration of DPR that it was a bona fide work done by the firm.
“I took six months doing research and working in labs to publish that article and they just copied it,” said Chaturvedi. Ram Biologicals bagged consultancy for two projects under septage and sewerage sector in Kozhikode worth Rs 130 crore, charging Rs 1.8 crore and till May they had received nearly Rs 50 lakh as consultancy charge.
Even the DPR Ram Biologicals did for various projects of decentralized sewage and septage treatment plant and associated sewerage networks worth Rs 116 crore contains chapters with lines similar to an article titled ‘Design of Sewerage System for Jaffarpur area in Southwest New Delhi’, which was published in International Journal of Civil Engineering Research in 2014. It also has lines lifted from modules of NPTEL IIT Kharagpur web courses which are used to describe different sections in the DPR.
TOI spoke to consultants and project officials in the field who said that such blatant reproduction of published works by individuals or groups without consent, attribution or acknowledgement under references was an infringement on proprietary and intellectual rights. TOI had earlier reported as to how Ram Biologicals was ready with sample results dating two months ago, even before the bid notification was issued by Kozhikode corporation for preparation of DPR for septage management project at Kozhikode medical college.